By Catherine Hilliard
Staff Writer
On Dec. 28, 2014 Air Asia flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea only 42 minutes into a two hour trip from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Last week, searchers have reported in finding multiple large pieces of the aircraft including the tail and fuselage, or main body of the plane, which is about 100 feet long.
At least 50 bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea. However, officials say more than 100 passengers are still missing. They are thought to be in the fuselage, which has not been pulled out the water yet due to the persistent search to find the missing bodies.
On Jan. 13, 2015, divers confirmed that both of the plane’s black boxes have been recovered, buried under large amounts of wreckage more than 30,000 feet below the water. The recovery of the black boxes is essential to determining the cause of the crash. They give investigators information on the plane’s air speed, engine performance, and cabin pressure. The information could take weeks to analyze.
Commercial aircrafts are required to have the black boxes on board each flight to carry two data recorders, which record sounds and radio transmissions, as well as air speed and altitude of the plane. The boxes were located in the tail of the plane at take-off, but were found to be more than two miles away from the tail after the aircraft crashed.
Aviation safety expert John Goglia, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member, replied to the new discovery by saying, “There’s like 200-plus parameters they record. It’s going to provide us an ocean of material.”
The Indonesian Transport Ministry reported that Air Asia did not have a license to fly the route on Dec. 28, and has been banned from flying the Singapore-Indonesia route. Air Asia has disagreed with the claims.
